The LBT z~6 QSOs Project
Mapping the primordial environment of QSOs at z~6 with LBT
In the current model of structure formation, high redshift QSOs are supposed to be hosted
in the most massive dark matter halos and they should be therefore tracer of overdensities
of star-forming galaxies, but the observational evidence is still not clear.
In 2012 we started an optical imaging campaign to search for galaxy overdensities
around four luminous QSOs at z~6 using wide area, deep images in the r-,i-
and z-bands, obtained with the Large Binocular Camera
(LBC)
on the Large Binocular Telescope (LBT).
The investigated QSOs are:
| QSO (SDSS id) | RA(J2000) | DEC(J2000) | z | MBH [109M☉] | zAB |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| J1030+0524 | 10:30:27.1 | +05:24:55 | 6.28 | 3.2 | 20.0 |
| J1048+4637 | 10:48:45.5 | +46:37:18 | 6.20 | 3.9 | 19.9 |
| J1148+5251 | 11:48:16.1 | +52:51:50 | 6.41 | 4.9 | 20.1 |
| J1411+1217 | 14:11:11.3 | +12:17:37 | 5.95 | 1.2 | 19.6 |
For the J1030 field we obtained also Y- and J-band imaging with the near infrared
camera (WIRCam)
at the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope (CFHT)
The large field of view of the LBC (25'x25') allowed us
to search for z~6 LBG candidates on scales as large as 4 projected Mpc from the QSOs.
When combining the four fields, we found significant evidence for large-scale
overdensities of LBG candidates around early quasars.
Results are presented in
Morselli et al.
(2014, A&A 568, A1).
The Data:
This web page provides, for each of the four fields, a tri-color image of the full FoV,
the FITS image of the r, i, z mosaics, the z-band selected
photometric catalog with associated r- and i-band magnitudes, and
cutouts of the i-dropouts selected as candidate high-z galaxies in the field.
Each FITS image is about 200 MB in size, and the catalogs are 4-5 MB. For the J1030 field
we also provide the FITS image of the Y, J mosaic, along with the corresponding near-infrared
detected catalogs. This is the README file providing additional
information about the photometric catalogs.
